Katie: At last…sighs and leans back I am done with that chapter…

Geoffrey: What was so hard about that? You barely typed for what? Four hours?

Katie: sweat drop Well, I planned it out a lot! You're lucky if I don't make you get killed by an effing chocobo!

Geoffrey: And those would be...???

Katie: Giant chickens you ride. Don't tempt me, Thief.

Geoff mutters Yeah right. Walks out the bedroom door She wouldn't dare…sweat drop…would she?

Katie: Haha! The fool doesn't even realize they're from the wrong game!

"KATIE?!?!?!" someone yelled. I couldn't tell who. I didn't WANT to know, either. If I had allowed my mind to wander, even once, I would have surely fallen off to my death below, crushed beneath the writhing body.

Swinging from one hand while being flung around by a pissed-off snake was not the way I had planned on dieing.

"Oh, quit your whining, you big baby!!" I snarled. I felt my clothes begin to get soaked through and through with the nasty blood of the double-headed monster. I spat some out of my mouth; time to do what I came for. I could feel my hand beginning to slip and slide over the hilt of my sword.

"DO IT NOW, KATIE!!"

"HIII-YAAAAAAAAH!!" With the last of my strength I pulled myself up and gripped the sword handle in the crook of my arm and with the other, pushed the salt-covered slab of meat deep into the cut in the eye.

Immediately, white foam began pouring from it. For good measure, I kicked the eye as well, forcing the meat in still deeper.

The Basilisk began writhing beneath me with renewed vigor. All pretenses forgotten, I felt it move swiftly toward the ground.

"Katie, JUMP!"

I looked down to see Jake and Geoff below, running with the Basilisk, their arms linked, forming a kind of basket for which to catch me before the Basilisk began bashing its own head in.

I closed my eyes when I did it. Without thinking, I let go of my sword. It felt like flying. I was weightless; falling through time and space. Then I started screaming. High-pitched wails escaped my lips as I began my speedy decent into the arms of a prince and a bandit; two unlikely companions. Before, I never would have believed it, but I gladly accepted their help as I crashed into their arms.

We fell; rolling over and over each other until we came to a screeching halt beside one of the boulders the Basilisk had knocked off.

"The things I do for you…," Geoff snapped, pushing me off hs arm. I looked at Jake, who was just lying on his side, smiling at me in a way I had never seen him smile before.

"Thanks, you guys…," I told them, jumping again onto both of them and giving them huge hugs. Geoff, resigned to his fate, patted my back. Jake squeezed me in his arms. "You've saved my life more than once already. I don't know what I would've done without you…,"

That's when the rest of my caravan arrived. Hanna, Sarah, and Morgan wolf-whistled and Nich looked embarrassed.

I hurriedly got off the two beneath me and helped them up with a pull of my arm. I jumped into encampment of arms my friends held out for me. I felt tears drip onto my body and hugs, pats, and kisses were passed around. No one seemed to care that we were all blood-soaked. The only thing that mattered to us was the fact that we were all alive and unhur-

"AMY!!" I cried, remembering suddenly the vivid image of a blonde-haired girl lying curled up on the floor. I pushed my way out of our mini-moshpit and ran toward the circle of light which glowed in the distance. The Basilisk had carried us a ways down the passage. "Amy!!"

I didn't care about anything else. Suddenly, the only thing that even made any remote form of sense to me was my best friend. The one person of my caravan that mattered more to me than anyone else I had ever known. "Please, be OK, Amy!!" I sobbed, pumping my legs.

I felt my tears pool in my eyes, and they weren't tears of joy anymore. They were tears of sadness. If Amy died, I didn't know what I would do. She had always been there for me, through thick and thin; ever since first grade. (True! as are these events!)

The light was getting closer…

I remembered the first time I thought about attempting to become her friend. It was in our first grade class. We had been assigned to get a piece of construction paper that was our favorite color and fill it with things of the same color. I couldn't even remember my own color, but I remembered Amy's.

It was orange. She was always obsessed with the color. I hated it. I remember her having a cheese puff on her paper. I also remember asking to eat it afterward, and she had looked at me strangely. She'd said it had glue on it, but I loved cheese puffs. So I pulled it off her paper and ate it anyway.

Little did I know that that one incident, practically the first time I had talked to her, would be the roots of a friendship I never wanted to lose…

It was only fifteen feet away…

I remember, for her twelfth birthday party, she only had three of her "closest" friends over. She surprised the three of us by taking us to a brand-new indoor water park. It had, literally, just opened that day, so no one was there. It was so fun, having the park all to ourselves.

I had no idea that being one of her dearest friends would tear at my heart like it was now…

There I was…

I dove to Amy's side, full-on belting out my apologies for all the times I had ever said something to hurt her. For all the times I had called her "stupid," "ugly," and "fat." I apologized for every tiny, unimportant thing. I grabbed her shirt and flipped her over. I told her I didn't want her to die like this. I called her a stubborn fool; told her that she ordinarily would never have allowed a dumb snake to beat her. She was better than it all. She was better than me…

(A/N: sad BGM: Josh Groban, and I'm about to cry. XD Guess I can let out all my emotions through my writing. I wonder what I would really do if Amy died…Makes me wonder!)

I felt a presence behind me, and then suddenly, Hanna and Sarah and Morgan had a hand placed on my shoulder.

"I'll go get…your sword for you…," Nich mumbled, going off back the way we had come. The Basilisk had died about 600 meters away, curled up like a humongeous, grotesque dog. Nich shuffled his feet as he moved along, following a long line of blood.

"Katie, I don't think…," Geoff's voice caught in his throat and he kneeled behind me and comforted me with his arms linked around my neck. I felt hot anger surge up inside me and I threw my friends from me.

"No! No, damn you! She's alive! I know she's alive!" I barked, thrusting a finger at Amy who still lay motionless.

"Katie, she's not breathing…At least…I don't think she is…," Morgan told me.

"Shut up! The lot of you!! Can't you just be quiet for one fucking minute?!"

Spasms took hold of my body and I threw myself beside the blonde on the floor, content just to die and go with her into the after-life.

"Katie, you can't act like this. Amywouldn't have wanted it…!" Hanna whispered softly into my ear.

Jake was quiet and moved to Amy's other side and pulled her closer to himself.

"Don't-touch-her!" I growled from inside my hands.

Jake ignored me and titled Amy's head back and plugged her nose before placing his mouth on hers.

I threw him a scathing look. "If you think that by putting on a show is going to make me feel better, you're damn wrong."